266 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 



tramway, a big public-house, and a picture palace ! 

 The Moorhen, evidently, would say with Diomed : 



" Thou dost miscall retire. 

 I do not fly ; but advantageous care 

 Withdrew me from the odds of multitude." 



In birds of the same group and closely allied 

 the same difference can be seen ; the Wood- 

 Pigeon, domiciled in London for only a few decades, 

 has shown itself much more ready to take advan- 

 tage of human friendship than the House-Pigeon, 

 which has been a public pet there for probably 

 as many centuries. The woodlander is now nesting 

 in absurdly low trees, even in those surrounding 

 Trafalgar Square, and even more readily alights 

 on people's hands to be fed than the other bird 

 does. 



Among the Ducks the same thing can be seen; 

 I have only once seen the Carolina Duck dive for 

 food, when a female thus caught a fish at Kew, 

 yet its ally the Mandarin, though less specialized 

 as a swimmer, dives quite frequently for food, and 

 unlike other surface-feeders, goes under with its 

 food when worried by Gulls. 



Observers of Humming-birds sometimes comment 

 on the very insect- like behaviour of these tiny 

 birds, but in this I fancy they have been misled 

 by the minute size and insect-like flight, for as far 

 as my observations, which I must admit have been 

 limited to a few captive individuals, have gone, I 

 cannot see that they show less intelligence than 



